What is Witchcraft
What is witchcraft?
This is a question that I get asked quite often, so today, I am tackling answering that question.
The idea of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft existed throughout history under a number of different terms. The term witchcraft itself is from the Middle Ages, so not that old in the grand scheme of things. The use of this "power" was used long before the takeover by the church. Look at the old myths from any culture, and they will have some sort of use of witchcraft. From Athena's curse upon mudusa to Ea (Enki) of Sumarien myths. He is said to have been the one to grant humans the gift of magic and all in between. We see so many examples of magic, the supernatural, and WITCHCRAFT.
"Witches" or better yet what they would have been called in the old days "healer, spiritual leaders, protectors, midwives, herbalist" had a prominent role in most societies. Magic was an excepted part of life. The God Enki was viewed as patrons of magic and the humans who channeled this power. They were believed to be channeling divine power.
In ancient Egypt, some of your priests and healers practiced magic (heka), believing this power was a gift from the gods. These views were not rare, but they span all across different cultures.
Unfortunately, over the decades, the use of magic became frowned upon, and many who were accused of practicing "witchcraft" were not only ostracized but hunted and killed. Think of all the souls who suffered at the hands of the witch trials of Europe and those in the states.
Since this is not a History of withcraft, I shall move on to the meaning of the term. Let's look at the 1828 edition of the Webster's dictionary for the definition of witchcraft. This first mention is not where you may expect it to be. So, according to Webster, witchcraft meant to use medicine, to have the knowledge of pharmaceuticals and medicine preparation. This isn't so far off, if you think back to your healers, herbals, medicine men and woman, even midwives. This gives a whole new out look on the term "witch doctors."
PHARMACEU’TIE, PHARMACEU’TI€AL,
Haxevo, to practice witchcraft or use medicine ;
papuaxoy, poison or medicine.] | Pertaining to
the knowledge or art of pharmacy, or to the art
of preparing medicines.
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But once you move on to the next entry, things take a bit of a turn. Now we have two completely different meanings where witchcraft is talked about. This definition isn't so surprising since we witches are always associated with evil, especially back in this era.
SOR’CERY, nn. Magic; enchantinent;
witchcraft; divination by the assistance
or supposed assistance of evil spirits, or
the power of commanding evil spirits.
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No, both of these mentions are not at the WITCHCRAFT entry. These are simply the first two mentions of it in this dictionary. Now we move on to the ACTUAL witchcraft definition in the book, and what would you know?... it's the act of bonking the devil.
WITCH’€R AFT, n. [witch and craft.)
The practices of witches; sorcery; enchantments ;
intercourse with the devil. Bacon. 2. Power more
than natural.
He hath a witchcraft Over the king in’s tongue.
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So, in this one dictionary of all things, we have the meaning of witchcraft to mean having knowledge of medicine and understanding how to use it, using evil spirits for our will, having power to command evil spirits, and my personal favorite, climbing in bed with the devil himself. Such a wide range of meanings. So when someone asks you, "What is witchcraft?," to which definition are they thinking?
But wait, we aren't done yet.
The Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary published in 2003, at the time of writing this, is the 11th and newest version of this dictionary. It has THIRTEEN mentions of witchcraft. Ironic, I would say. To be clear now, all of those are not describing witchcraft; it is simply all the places it is mentioned. For example, the first mention is under "amulet."
Let's fast-forward to the actual page and definition of witchcraft. After all, it is the modern definition I wish to discuss with ya all.
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At first glance, you may be confused or jump to conclusions with number three, WICCA, but slow your roll for a second and let me explain. Yes, that spelling is the same spelling used for the religion of Wicca, BUT an interesting fact in this regard is that "wicca' is the old English word meaning "male"; Wicce (female), which meant "witch" or "sorcerer."
Now, in 2003, we see not much has changed regarding the devil bit, and any practitioner worth their salt knows that simply comes from Christians and their attempts at control STILL.
Now, I will take you down a winding road, so lace up your boots and follow along as we jump down this rabbit hole.
Let's look at 1a: the use of sorcery or magic. This plays a role in my whole "what does witchcraft mean?" Some would say you can't answer this question without understanding what the terms sorcery and magic mean, so we will use the same 2003 dictionary here.
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| Sorcery |
And since we already know the meaning of Witchcraft, according to Mr ol webster we move on to magic.
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| Magic |
Here, we see several meanings for magic. Some of these are clearly self-explanatory, but let's look at
1: The art of persons who claim to be able to do things by the help of supernatural creatures or by their own knowledge of nature's secrets. A quick web search will tell you "nature's secrets generally refers to hidden or unknown aspects of the natural world.
Next we will look at the meaning of supernatural.
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| Supernatural |
Now, let us connect the dots.
Witchcraft means "the use of magic,"
Magic means "someone who can do things by supernatural means,"
SUPERNATURAL means "relating to (having a connection between) an existence beyond the visible universe."
If you toss out all the Christian propaganda, witchcraft isn't some scary thing. But the use of energy outside the usual mundane laws of nature. I say usual because science has proven the existence of energy, but they just haven't quite got it all figured out.
As someone once said to me, "Witchcraft is simply science that science hasn't caught up with yet."
Speaking of energy, let me add the 2003 definition here so that there is no confusion.
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So, according the dictionary, the simple answer to "what is witchcraft?" would be
The use of magic, leaving what is normal and transcending the laws of nature bu using positive spiritual force.
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Now for the fun part.
What prompted me to write this blog is that I get asked quite often, "What does witchcraft mean?". This is not a new question, but one I have been asked many times through the years. Last year in 2024, I really wanted to give a better answer a more hard-fact (I guess you would call it) type of answer. And sure, the above definitions totally do that.
However, how many people do you know even look up the meaning of words, much less know HOW to use a dictionary? At the very least, they could use a search engine. Yet, looking up and understanding the meaning of a word seems quite difficult for many people these days. (Let me be clear here NOT ALL PEOPLE.) Even if many people chose to look up the meaning of witchcraft most would stop there after see the christain bullshit side of it.
After all witches are devil lovers is the tote line many already believe.
So here I am midnight middle of the week, writing this.
I do not say the above in a harsh manner, just as a fact one.
Though the above gives you hard book facts, I wanted a more personal touch per se. So I set off on a experiment and let me tell you it yeiled more than I was expecting.
It’s often said by practitioners, myself included, that “if you ask 13 witches what witchcraft means, you’ll get 13 different answers.” While this statement isn’t exactly wrong, it’s not entirely accurate, either.
Over the past several months, I conducted an experiment, if you will, to explore this idea more deeply. The question I posed was: "What does witchcraft mean?" Out of the 11 volunteers who participated, only one provided an objective definition. The remaining 10 responded subjectively, which I found not only intriguing but also quite significant.
When I initially posed this question, I phrased it, "What does witchcraft mean to you?" My intention was to get responses to what does the term witchcraft itself mean, and that is by far NOT what I got.
After weeks of sitting on it and analyzing these responses, I came to realize that how I phrased the question invited a subjective perspective. The question should not have been "What does witchcraft mean to YOU?" but rather "What does the witchcraft mean?"
So I reasked the same 11 people only to receive pretty much the same subjective answers. With a few differences. One person explained it in a personal manner, and when I specified "objective," they said they didn't know. Frankly, this was refreshing and something I highly respect. There is no shame in admitting when you don't know something. Another was worried they didn't understand the assignment even though there isn't a "wrong" answer. The rest were pretty similar to the original answers.
My end result is saying, "you'll get 13 different answers if you ask 13 witches what witchcraft means" is not accurate. Rather, you’ll get 13 different answers when you ask them what does witchcraft mean to THEM. On a personal level. At the end of the day, that is perfectly fine because the craft is a personal journey. Admittingly, seeing all the personal answers of what the craft means to people is heart warming to see how it has helped and healed many.
As someone who finds psychology fascinating, this was intriguing to me. Not only does it show the power of how you phrase things but also how many people defaultlly answer things subjectively. In my initial inquiry, I phrase it the way I did because I was asking THAT person, so for me, it was "I am asking Frank so to be clear... I phrased it to you." This is not how "normal" minds seem to work, I have learned. lol. All in all, I found this to be highly enlightening, educational, and quite interesting, to be truthful.
It definitely changed me and my perspective. I will no longer say, "you ask different practitioners, you'll get different answers," at least not without a little more context of subjectivity and objectivity. As well as how I phrase questions.
If you have made it this far, I am fairly sure you're wondering what my thoughts and definition is for "witchcraft." So, without further ado, "what does witchcraft mean?"
Witchcraft is the understanding that you are constantly surrounded by energy—every day, every moment, with every breath. It’s the awareness of this energy and the ability to consciously interact with it. To harness and shape that energy with intention to manifest a desired outcome—that is magic. That is witchcraft.
What does this mean for you?
How do you choose to interpret what witchcraft is?
That is something you will have to answer for yourself, beautiful fledglings.
Written by: Ethan Doyle White
Fact checked by: The Editors of Encyclopeadia Britannica
Last updated February 13, 2025
Enki
Written by: Joshua J. Mark
Published on January 9, 2017
Heka
Written by Joshua J. Mark
Publish on February 23, 2017
An American Dictionary of English Language
By: Noah Webster
Published 1828
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary
By: Merriam - Webster Inc
Published: 2003
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